Mary Blount Elementary School

 
 

devastation

Mary Blount has Two CDC special education classrooms that provide Core Academics and Life Skills for students with physical and intellectual disabilities, who are significantly below grade level and/or socially behind their peers.

daily challenges

  • Drab interior with little visual interest

  • Minimal opportunities for Sensory input

  • Need opportunities for appropriate active movement

  • Cluttered. Needed lots more storage to organize supplies, materials

  • Difficult to incorporate life skill development in the kitchen

  • No art or creative areas

  • No place for Calming and De-escalation inside the classrooms

  • Existing furniture was worn out, many years past It’s useful life, and inappropriate for learning

  • Eat their meals in the classroom (do not go to the lunch room). Needed chairs that allow students to transfer from wheelchairs and easily sit at tables for both meals and learning

  • The minimal toys and games in the room were from thrift stores or hand-me-downs

  • Inadequate teacher zone at the Smartboard, for teaching

design solutions

  • Created fun Camping themed rooms, with colors of the great outdoors, differing slightly in each classroom

  • Each class received toys, games for sensory input as well as a large mobile “River” for touching and playing

  • Both classrooms received freestanding swings that allows designated space for healthy, calming movement

  • Organized Storage: redistributed supplies and learning materials into each area of the room via ample storage systems

  • Built a kitchen work island, with stools, that allowed for simultaneous cooking demonstrations and student interaction

  • Used existing cabinetry and counterspace to create an Art area in both classrooms

  • Assembled real camping Tents for students to escape to when they need to calm down or have a few moments to themselves

  • Provided collaborative tables on casters with markerboard tops, this gives teachers great flexibility in how they teach

  • Provided 7 new orange mobility transfer chairs that swivel to allow students easy access into the chair, even from a wheelchair

  • Stocked new games and toys and unpacked and organized existing games and toys for student use

  • Installed electric height adjustable teacher desks that allow the teacher to sit or stand while instructing

Impact

Strong Visual Aesthetic: The rooms create an observable excitement from the moment you enter. The feeling of the outdoors improves cognitive function and sets a positive environment for learning

Flexibility: Teachers now have zones of the room and appropriate furniture to teach and interact with students in multiple ways

Calming: the classrooms offer students places/ways to calm down and de-escalate without leaving the classroom 

Teacher Efficiency: new flexible workstations requiring minimal square footage

news story

https://www.facebook.com/KingdomDesignMinistries/posts/10159709518173447

watch the reveal

https://www.facebook.com/KingdomDesignMinistries/videos/5775851369123565

project partners